Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

They all had thought it once.

even if no one spoke of it, he knew, they knew. Everyone knew.

It was right there,in everyone’s face and on his.

back when the fire prince was chasing them they would talk about it, and wondering what happened to the man. Katara had suggested that he attacked someone and they surprisingly fought back, it made sense given his hothead nature.sokka said that it he thought it might not even be from bending, he probably got to close to a campfire, that made sense because the prince didn’t seem to smart. Aang frowned and told them he thought it could probably be a training accident, he probably just made a mistake.

When Toph joined, she hadn’t met him but she had heard about him, apparently he even had a pony tail. When she heard about the scar she assumed it was a slash, maybe a cool line through eye! Not like anyone decided to tell her it was burn.

But then Zuko joined. It was rocky at first but they were slowly building a…friendship (?) however, even as they got closer, everyone avoided the topic of that damned scar like the plague.

”take the day off training today” Zuko said, voice strangely quiet.

”what? Why?” Aang tilted his head.

”you’ve-um, you’ve been working hard recently, you should rest” it was oh so obvious he was lying.

the others were watching, not directly but out the corner of their eyes as they all did on their own things. Aang was going to say something but then he saw his eye twitch, his bad eye, and decided to say nothing. It looked…worse today, everyone noticed, it seemed as if it had just now been burned.

”okay…” Aang said softly, before he could ask if Zuko was okay, the prince had turned around and was gone.

the silence was deafening before Toph spoke out “…I hate feeling bad but damn” making everyone turn to her, clearly confused. The earthbender scoffed, she knew the rest had little education but it was still annoying “phantom pain. I learned about it from the tutors my parents got me. when a person has a shitty injury sometimes the pain can last, even long after they’ve gotten it” she explained with a shrug

Sokka frowned “oh” he said simply “…let’s just leave him alone today, okay?” He said to the others who all silently nodded and went back to what they were doing

they would talk about it

One day, just not today

Chapter Text

It had been about a week since that day. No one spoke of it, just as no one ever spoke of it.

that was until they had almost ran out of supplies and went to the market to buy more.

“Maybe you should put your hood up” Katara said as they walked to the market.

”what?” Zuko raised an eyebrow, the sudden question catching him of guard.

”I mean it’ll be easy to recognise you because…y’know” the water bender vaguely gestured to the side of her face.

“Oh, right” Zuko said nodded and put his hood up

aang frowned sympathetically “she means it would be easy to recognise you because um.. your a prince! Yea, surely the fire nation would recognise their prince?” He blurted out, trying not to offend zuko, he hated seeing people upset, especially his friends.

Zuko gave a small, slight, smile at the kid, he was always so damn sweet “it’s fine” he reassured.While he was snappy with others he couldn’t help but be a little nicer to younger kids, especially aang.

Once they reached the market sokka immediately darted to the food stands, practically drooling over the meat

”really? couldn’t even wait a second before you had to stuff your mouth?” Toph rolled her eyes, smirking as she flung a small pebble at his head

”ow!” Sokka crossed his arms “was that really necessary?” He pouted dramatically.

“Absolutely!” Toph laughed.

they decided to spilt up, Toph and sokka went of together to do spirts knows what, Katara went on her own to get the important stuff done, leaving Aang and Zuko together. They wandered around for a while, talking about their shared interests: animals, spirts, plays, plants and different cultures, they really had a lot in common when you think about it.

Aang followed Zuko as they walked to a nearby pond, giddy with excitement, Zuko had bought some bread to feed the turtle ducks—the airbender loved feeding animals but the others never really did it with him before Zuko. “Hey, Sifu hotman?” Aang grinned, insisting on using that stupid nick name “why do you like turtle ducks so much?” He asked, not sure even a hint of judgment in his tone

”oh!well-“ Zuko took a breath as his lips tugged up into a fond smile “my mother would always take me to lakes or ponds near the palace and feed them with me” he sat down by the pond and broke of half the bread handing it to Aang.

aang nodded “that sounds sweet!” He chirped, feeding some crumbs to the ducks that flocked around them “so I’m guessing they have some good memories then?”.

”yes, very good memories” Zuko agreed, his childhood may have been awful but he would always cherish those memories with his mother.

their calm moment was ruined as a raspy voice yelled from the market “hey you!”

both their heads whipped around to see a old man snarling at them, “what are you two doing?!” He yelled as he stomped over to them, the others had heard the yelling and also began making their way to the pair. “Don’t you know you can’t feed the food?!” The man yelled once he reached them

”food?” both Zuko and Aang muttered, upset, they were going to eat the turtle ducks?

Zuko was the first to stand, grabbing Aangs arm to help him up, “sorry sir” he bowed respectfully, it was a common thing in the fire nation to bow, “we didn’t know” he said, as the others finnaly reached them.

”oh sure you didn’t, scar face!”

everything went silent, even the animals, in utter shock. Everything was so incredibly still until-

“don’t call him that!”

”how dare you!”

”oh fuck off!”

“It was an accident!”

Zuko went quiet, staring at the floor until he gained enough sense to speak “let’s just go” he said, voice quiet, too quiet for him. The gaang gave each other concerned looks, then glares at the man before following Zuko has he walked back. No one spoke throughout the walk back. Zukos mind was a daze, oh how he hated that damned scar, he hated people talking about it even more, it reminded him how weak he had been, how weak he was.

his farther should of just killed him

he quickly shook that thought away, he’d rather not break down sobbing in front of others.

no one spoke until “Zuko.” Kataras voice, while soft and gentle still cut through the thick air like a knife “…may I ask a question?” She said carefully

zuko just nodded, still staring at the ground with a blank expression.

”don’t answer if your not comfortable, really I won’t be mad” the waterbender started, knowing how stressed her friend probably was “but, how did you get that scar?”

There it was.

That question that had been on all their minds since they met him. The silence was deafening before Zuko finally answered, voice shaking and quiet “…I’ll tell you when we get back”

They all sat around the fire, no one could bring themselves to look at Zuko for fear of scaring him off. But eventually he spoke, having calmed down slightly “…when I was thirteen—“

he couldn’t even finish his first sentence before hearing gasps from the others, thirteen?, he gave them a weak glare before continuing, if he didn’t talk about this now he never would

”when I was thirteen, I wanted to learn how to be firelord for when I was older—I begged, and begged my uncle to let me join in one one of the war meetings, eventually he gave in with one condition:be quiet, don’t speak out of turn”

Aang gulped, he knew Zuko well enough to know he wasn’t exactly the quietest person ever, a sinking feeling forming in his gut.

”And i didn’t.until one general suggested that we send the 41st division to the earth kingdom to fight a troop we were having trouble with. I pointed out how it would be stupid to send them because most, if not all of them, were young and inexperienced, there was no way they could beat a veteran Earth kingdom troop”

Toph nodded, understanding, if someone suggested something that stupid to her she’d through rocks at them.

Zukos face then morphed into a look of disgust and anger “He told me that they weren’t actually there for battle. That they would bring them out as bait while I stronger troop came in through the back and attacked the earth soldiers. He was going to let so many innocent people die, he talked about them like cattle”

at that sokkas face twisted into a glare, soldiers were highly respected in the water tribe and to treat them so callously…it was disgusting.

“But…since I spoke out of turn-“ Zuko swallowed “I needed to be punished. And so I was challenged to an Agni Kai-“

”Agni Kai? What’s that?” Katara said gently, raising an eyebrow.

”it’s a firebending duel, it ends at either first burn or death” Zuko answered, everyone shared looks, a sinking feeling as to were this story was going forming in their chests.

Zuko took a deep breath and continued “i accepted, the general was old, I was desperate to prove myself and sure I could beat him. But when I got there I learned that, since I was we disrespectful in the firelords throne room, it was him who I disrespected”

gasps came from everyone, the story just kept getting worse, even Aang wasn’t able to face the firelord yet so there was no way a non-avatar thirteen year old boy could.

tears picked at zukos eyes but he forced them back “I had to fight my own farther” his voice came out weaker then expected “i didn’t want to, i couldn’t. I got on my knees and begged him to not hurt me, told him that i wasn’t a traitor, that I couldn’t hurt him. But my father…he isn’t forgiving and he…well umm-“ with shaky hands he pulled back his hair, showing the full sacr

the handprint.

That was the final thing that broke the dam. Aang rushed forward and wrapped himself around Zuko, crying as he rambled on about how unfair it was and how no one deserves that.

zuko patted his back awkwardly he wasn’t used to hugs, but he couldn’t turn the other away. He took a shaky breath before continuing “and if that wasn’t enough I was then banished and told I could only return home if I captured the avatar. Which was why I was chasing you” he explained before adding “sorry about that”

Aang continued to hug him tight enough to make it feel like he was being squished “don’t apologise!” He said through tears.

at this point the others had collected themselves enough to follow in aangs footsteps and hug Zuko, the prince looked confused, like he’s never been hugged before and that just made it worse…

They stayed like that for spirts knows how long just holding the boy, as if trying to hug the suffering out of him.

and if they happened to add a few extra kicks to ozai once he was beaten?

No one spoke of it